Pelosi threatens to reject funds for troop surge

By -
The Washington Times -
Monday, January 8, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats yesterday said their party might deny funding for President Bush’s expected call this week for a troop surge in Iraq if he doesn’t meet their demands for detailed consultations and congressional debate on military strategy.

“If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now. The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them,” the California Democrat said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions.”

Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and House Appropriations Committee chairman, echoed his party leader’s warnings and some of her wording, saying, “There are certainly going to be no blank checks” from his panel.

“I think we’re going to scrub his request and, at the same time, use it as a chance to really discuss whether or not the policy behind that request makes any sense,” he said.

But he, like Mrs. Pelosi, was quick to emphasize that a rejection of a surge did not equate to abandoning the forces already stationed in Iraq.

“I think the Congress will provide everything that the troops need,” he said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

In a letter to the president on Friday, Mrs. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, cautioned Mr. Bush against calling for a troop surge, although it did not threaten to wield Congress’ purse power.

“Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed,” the letter reads. “Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake. They, like us, believe there is no purely military solution in Iraq.”

Mrs. Pelosi was more explicit yesterday.

“The burden is on the president to justify any additional resources for a mission,” she said. “Congress is ready to use its constitutional authority of oversight to question what is the justification for this spending.”

Mrs. Pelosi’s fellow Californian Sen. Barbara Boxer said on CNN’s “Late Edition” that she would like to see Congress vote on whether Mr. Bush can send more troops and issued warnings about funding a surge.

“My belief is, the president’s coming to us,” said Mrs. Boxer, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He’s going to ask for billions and billions of dollars. … I think it would be best for the country if we got to vote on that surge or escalation.”

She added that “there’s nothing against that in the Constitution. We do have the power of the purse.”

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Mrs. Boxer: “So you want to use that power of the purse?”